Noma is the supreme example of ‘localism’ in restaurants. Shame it’s in Copenhagen

17 July 2010

Toby Young suffers from Status Anxiety

It was too good an invitation to turn down. My friend James had managed to get a reservation at Noma, recently named best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine. True, it’s in Copenhagen, but James offered to use his air miles to get me a ticket if I paid for lunch. ‘You’re on,’ I said.

On the face of it, there’s something a little odd about this gastronomic landmark being in Denmark. I don’t mean that the Danes aren’t famous for their food. It’s more that you wouldn’t expect to find such a potent symbol of plutocratic excess in the world’s most socially democratic country. Of the world’s richest economies, Denmark currently enjoys the highest rate of intergenerational social mobility, possibly because it also has the lowest level of income inequality. In order to climb from the bottom to the top of the socio-economic ladder in Denmark you don’t have to travel very far.

The chef patron of Noma, René Redzepi, is a perfect illustration of Danish social democracy in action. The son of an Albanian/Macedonian cab-driver, he has reached the top of his profession at the grand old age of 32.

In fact, Copenhagen is the perfect location for the world’s best restaurant. In the past 25 years, food has become completely radicalised. Left-wing intellectuals, having colonised the high tables of most western universities, have now moved on to the kitchen. Every stage of food production and consumption, from seed to plate, has become a site of political struggle. The restaurants that win all the glittering prizes are no longer temples of haute cuisine like Le Bernardin in New York or the Waterside Inn at Bray. Rather, they are local, original, authentic.

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